PERSONAL MEMOIRS OF U.S. GRANT (LEATHERBOUND, TWO VOLUMES, COMPLETE)

New York: Charles L. Webster, 1886. First Edition. Leather-bound. Good Plus. Octavos. Three-Quarters brown morocco, ruled in gilt, over brown, cloth-covered boards. Gilt medallions (3-in. diameter) to front and rear boards of both volumes, one commemorating the Joint Resolution of Congress December 17, 1863, and the one on the reverse the Mississippi River, quite dear to Twain. Marbled endpapers and edges. Steel engravings, maps, fold-out maps and letter-facsimiles tipped-in.

REPAIRED VOLUMES. Both volumes show restorative patching to top of both volumes, and bottom of one. Hinges repaired (guarded) and boards (Volume II) reattached. Volume I shows a very small closed crack to bottom. Some rubbing to marbling on bottom edge of Volume II. Hinges guarded. Mixed set, and priced thusly. The first books published by Twain's firm were these Personal Memoirs of U.S. Grant, and Twain's own Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. Having been defrauded of his estate, Grant was determined to leave some financial legacy, and was still working on these memoirs several months before his death, despite the fact that many of the chapters were written when he was suffering from terminal throat cancer. Mark Twain established his own publishing firm in 1885 and placed his niece's husband Charles Webster in charge. "Written frantically while in a race with death, these recollections rank with the best of the Civil War period." (Nevins II, 59).